Sorry been MIA the last month in newborn hell. I think the biggest issue in January other than it being traditionally difficult to do business in this window is that all of the players who move the needle for us are on teams either fighting for the title or CL qualification in their respective leagues or in a relegation battle. I’d love any of Isak, Marmoush, Barcola, Kvara, Lookman, or Cunha but why would their teams sell them right now when they need them desperately. Kudus or Mitoma might be a little more gettable but good luck negotiating with West Ham and Brighton- we’d be paying at least 1.5x their value. Olmo would be a great market opportunity that we should pounce on if he’s available but I think we also might have to make the difficult decision of if we really feel like we can do enough to stay in the title chase this year and if it’s worth it to potentially undercut our summer pursuit of longtime targets (Isak/Sesko and a winger like Barcola/Nico).
The timing of the big international tourneys last summer in the window where we really needed to strengthen our attack is very frustrating to me in retrospect. Other than maybe Olise, it’s tough to get too bent out of shape about any attackers of note that actually moved and that we missed out on. Those tourneys just paralyzed the market.
